“Done!” Button Mash declares triumphantly while using my body to push away his homework. “Geeze, Mom. Crack that whip, why don't ya? You really know how to lay it on thick.”

“You really think so?” Button's mother, Cream Heart, asks brightly. “Because, you know, I really was considering to be a teacher before I had you, but being a mother has been a full-time job for me.” She smiles as she looks off to her side. “But you know . . . having this experience with you two really does bring back some nostalgic memories.

“Huh.”

Cream Heart tilts her head cutely as she applies a hoof to her left cheek and muses aloud, “Maybe I should rekindle that old dream of mine. Perhaps I could at least substitute for Miss Cheerilee.” She looks at us. “Or maybe I should apply for the Friendship School. They've been desperately calling for substitute teachers because their primary teachers are the Elements of Harmony who frequently get called away to do some friendship missions.” She looks at her “son” more squarely as she asks him, “What do you think?”

Button looks up at his mother brightly as he says, “Sure, Mom! If that is what makes you happy.” Now he assumes this typical bragging posture and expression which feels weird to see that with my body. “Not only that, but I'm a big pony now! I can totally take care of myself around the house so you go off and do what you want. I'd probably occupy most of my time playing video games anyway.”

“Uh-huh,” Button's mother nods with a deadpan expression. “Uh . . . yeah. Thanks but no thanks, and thank you for the warning. Bad idea.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Button asks in an offended tone and inadvertently used my trademark squeaky sound when he used the word “that”. He goes on to say, “I am a big pony now, Mom! I can take care of myself without having to be foalsit all the time! You'll see.”

Cream Heart smiles at her son as she reaches forward and pinches Button's cheek while saying, “Oh Button . . . you are so cute as a little filly right now!”

“Mom!” Button exclaims in embarrassment as he backs my head off and rubs my cheek. “Cut it out! You're embarrassing me.” He glances at me then corrects himself by saying, “Embarrassing us both, actually.”

Cream Heart regards her son with a bemused and fond expression as she says, “You know . . . I always wondered what it would be like to have a daughter. Part of me even hoped for that but I'm not disappointed with what I got instead either. You and I had some crazy adventures together.” She boops my body's nose. “My little trouble maker. Maybe that should have been your cutie mark,” she teases.

“Which is something I'd prefer to keep private . . . please!” Button requests tightly.

All of our ears perk up when we hear the front doorbell ring. Almost immediately after, Cream Heart scampers off as she says, “I'll get it.” Then she calls ahead more loudly. “I'm coming!”

Button sighs in irritation as he leans my head back and rests it on the counter behind us. After that, he says, “I'm sorry about my mom. I know she can be quite a pain.”

“Seems to me you two have that in common,” I tease with a snicker while I playfully tap my white hoof on my body's left shoulder.

“Hey! Whose side are you on?” he asks as he turns my head to look at me. “You're my little special somepony. You should be on my side, not my mom's!”

“But you really do make a cute filly!” I continue to tease as I swish my two-shaded tail behind me in a playful manner.

Button sits up straight and widens my eyes at me as he asks, “Is that the way you really want me to be? To be a cute little filly?! I thought you had enough of that with your Crusader friends.”

Since he's got a point, I drop my teasing smile and tell him far more seriously and sincerely, “Oh, believe me, I do prefer you the way you were, and you're right . . . I do have enough filly friends. I'd always welcome more, but I prefer you the way you were.” I squirm in embarrassment as I admit, “It's just that . . . I find our current situation adorable. I wouldn't want you to stay this way because, you know, I do eventually want my body back aaaaand I want you to have yours. For the moment, though, I'm just trying to make the best of things.”

Button looks past me. He notices something before announcing, “Speaking of your filly friends.” He then points my left hoof past me three times. I turn around then widen my eyes in delight.

“Hey Apple Bloom! Hey Scootaloo!” I say in delight. “What's sup?”

“Nothing much,” Scootaloo answers as she and Apple Bloom trot in further. In fact, Apple Bloom hops up to the bar stool seat next to me. “We're finished with school and wanted to check out and see how you two are doing,” Scootaloo elaborates as she hops into the couch ahead of me but hangs her forehooves off the back in order to face me. “Speaking of schooling . . . how's your first day studying with Miss Cream Heart?”

“Miss Cream Heart!” Cream Heart repeats with amusement as she searches for something in the kitchen. I don't know what. “Now a mare can get used to respectful titles like that.”

“Grueling,” Button pouts.

“Enlightening,” I answer much more lightly.

“Embarrassing,” Button counters. “Who wants to stay home from school all day and be taught by one's own mom? I see her enough when I come back from school on other days.” He spins about in the barstool to face his mother before saying, “I love you, Mom, but a foal needs a break sometimes.”

“Oh, you don't need to explain,” Cream says as she reads the back of a cereal box unusually carefully as if trying to discern something. “I was a young and wild filly too at some time so I know what it's like to long for independence.”

Scootaloo snickers before teasing, “She called you a, 'filly too'.”

“Yeah! I know!” Button barks irritably. “She and Sweetie have been teasing me about that all day long. It's driving me nuts.”

I frown a bit at Button because part of me really does feel sorry for him. After all, I'm the one who inadvertently dragged him into this mess.

I decide to attempt to change the subject a bit by looking back at Scootaloo and announcing, “As a change of pace, it is nice to spend a day with Cream and Button in order to learn that way but I also have to admit that I miss going to school, seeing Miss Cheerilee, and spending more time with you gals.

“Speaking of which, aren't you two supposed to be Crusading right about now?” I ask as I look back and forth between Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

“Not without you, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom says with a frown to me. “It ain't feeling right without ya.”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo strongly agrees. “We're a team and, without you, we feel incomplete so we announced in class that we're canceling future Crusader sessions until our friend gets better.”

“Lots of foals groaned because of that,” Apple Bloom adds to what Scootaloo said. “But a few did ask about ya. They told us to tell ya they wished ya well.”

“Aw!” I get all gushy. “That's so sweet!”

“They even talked about making you a 'Get well' card,” Scootaloo put in. She smiles a bit. “I swear, it's so touching to discover how many ponies really care for us.”

“Well I, for one, am not too surprised,” Cream Heart says as she carefully studies the back of yet another item. It looks like it is cream of wheat. “I say that because I've discovered that this town has a lot of heart. Whatever we do, we tend to do it with a lot of passion and feeling.”

“As the spontaneous town-wide songs clearly attest to,” Button says with a grin on my face.

“That's gotten more common ever since Pinkie Pie moved into town, I noticed,” Cream noted as she finally looks from the box she's holding and back to us, though she's still holding the box with a hoof. “I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that Pinkie might be the heart of the town. Back when Twilight lived here, I'd call her the mind.”

“Actually, ma big sister keeps saying that the apple farm is the heart of the town,” Apple Bloom partially argues/brags. “Though Ah gotta admit . . . Pinkie certainly magnifies that potential emotionally. She gets everypony all jazzed up and excited tah live hee-yare.”

Cream Heart shakes her head as she says, “Heart? Maybe. But these days I'd call it more like the foundation of the town. The one critical piece that caused everything else to build up around it. Heart is more based on emotion but the farm does serve the role too since it's a historic landmark.” Cream shakes her head. “This town certainly wouldn't feel the way it does if the Sweet Apple Acres suddenly went missing.”

“Ya said it!” Apple Bloom agrees cheerfully.

“So you fillies came here just to hang out?” Button Mash checks as he looks between us all. “You're out of school and you're not doing Crusading today. That narrows your options.”

Scootaloo smiles a bit as she starts swishing her purple tail while she says, “Actually, yeah. Apple Bloom and I have been discussing it along our way here and we realized that we miss hanging out and just being friends. Because of that, we were thinking of heading out and having fun somewhere.”

“Yeah?” Button questions. “Well good luck with that. I hope you all have fun.”

Scootaloo blinks at Button questioningly as she asks, “What are you talking about? You're invited too.”

“Yeah. Thanks but no thanks. I'm not planning on heading out anytime soon while looking like this,” Button gestures to my true body. “Why do you think I stayed here instead of going to school? Do you think I wanted to stay here and study with my mother, of all ponies? No! But I put up with it because it is still better than the alternative.”

“But we ain't going tah school,” Apple Bloom put in. “Instead we're heading out someplace fun like . . .” She trails off as she thinks about it. She even looks back and forth between me and Scootaloo to see if we have any good ideas.

I notice Cream freeze for a moment before she sets some boxes of food down and turns to look at her “son” and says, “Actually, that's a very good idea! You all should head outside and play. Go have a good time. Youth doesn't last forever.”

“Mom!” Button complains. “I can't head outside looking like a little filly! I'd look ridiculous.”

I get the distinct feeling that all of us mares and fillies in the room found his choice of words offensive. His mother is the one who just happens to be the first to voice it.

“And what's wrong with being a filly?” Button's mother asks her son. “And besides, no pony else will think you look ridiculous. They'd just think that your Sweetie Belle.” She looks at me. “Unless you go with him too while looking like that as well.”

“But I can change my form now! I know how!” I mention excitedly. “So I can wear a clever disguise. Look!”

To prove my point, I morph my form so that I'm now wearing horn-rim glasses that has a goofy nose and a fake mustache. Once I am wearing my ingenious disguise, I tell the others in a voice filled with mystique, “I can be Shimmering Spectacles!” I narrow my eyes and give a shifty-eyed look as I add in a slightly lower tone of voice, “A librarian with a mysterious past.”

“Sounds perfect!” Scootaloo agrees enthusiastically.

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom also cheers. “You go, girl!”

Button looks bewildered between each of us Crusaders before finally asking us, “You're all kidding . . . right?”

“Why would we be joking?” I ask my coltfriend. “Just look at these!” I gesture to my face and my clever disguise in particular. “I look like a totally different pony while wearing these.”

“You look like Sweetie Belle with a dumb disguise,” Button tells me with a deadpan face. “Come on, Sweetie Belle. You got a changeling body now! You can try to go for something way cooler than that.”

I feel a bit miffed that Button is dissing my clever disguise but I'm also curious if he does have a better idea, so I ask him, “Like what?”

Then I look at Scootaloo as she bursts into a chuckle but she tries to hold it back by pressing her forehooves into her mouth. When she calms down a bit, she suggests, “How about you, Sweetie Belle, go out with us while disguised as Button Mash!?” she asks in a tone of amusement. “That way we're all here and we don't have to explain anypony’s absence. Besides, it seems only fair since he has to go out disguised as you.”

Cream Heart sighs as she says, “While that does sound like fun and might be fair, it's also rather risky. A bunch of ponies in town are aware that my son's body is in a coma right now. I've had a lot of ponies stopping me on the streets and offer their best wishes and condolences. With just about any store you all go to, you're bound to get a lot of questions if Sweetie Belle here goes disguised as my son.”

Button frowns and says, “If it weren't for that, the two of us could technically go to school but I still don't want to go while disguised as Sweetie even if Sweetie goes as me. I don't want to feed into anypony's impression that I am Sweetie Belle. It just wouldn't feel right.”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo agrees with a sigh. “I guess that wouldn't feel right.”

“We ain't gonna force ya into anything y’er uncomfortable with, Button Mash,” Apple Bloom assures. “But that said, Ah highly encourage ya to join us.”

“Yeah! We just want to hang out!” Scootaloo also encourages then looks at me. “Back me up, Sweetie Belle.”

I sigh as I regard Button while taking a brief moment to gather my thoughts before telling him, “Button, you know I care for you a great deal. You know I do. I'm your special somepony and you are mine . . . but . . .” I look across my other two friends then look back at him. “these two fillies are my best friends too and we have yet to all hang out together. I think it would be really cool if my new friend and my old friends hang out and have some fun.”

“While I look like you?” Button checks. “Your reputation is more on the line than mine, Sweetie Belle. Are you sure?”

Before I have a chance to answer, he raises my hooves as he declares, “Look, I don't mind the 'hanging out' part. I'm totally down for that. My only problem here is going outside and being forced to pretend to be Sweetie Belle. I care about her too much to want to risk doing something or saying something that might give others the wrong impression of her or me. Also, I'd feel too embarrassed pretending I'm something I'm not. The other thing you all seem to be forgetting I currently have my cutie mark on Sweetie's flank. That's bound to raise some questions if anypony spots it.

“Besides, I have a better alternative. We can all just hang around here and play some video games.” Now he lights up the expression on my face. “So? How about it? You all down for playing some video games? I got a bunch to offer!”

Apple Bloom's expression to Button deadpans as she says, “Believe it or not, Button, not every foal gets excited for video games lahk you do.”

“And we wanna hang out somewhere outside!” Scootaloo says so anxiously that she hops on the couch once.

“Please, Button?” I beg him while batting my eyes at him. “We just want to have some fun with you.”

“An Ah tell ya what,” Apple Bloom proposes. “We'll make ya a deal. Whenever ya’re around others, ya pretend yer Sweetie and we'll do the same.” She looks at him more squarely. “But when it's just the four of us tah'gether, we'll treat ya lahk Button cuz we all know yer secret so we might as well treat ya as ya are, and it should be mostly just us hanging together so ya barely have to act at all. Sound fair?”

“As for your cutie mark, we can cover it up with a dress or something,” Scootaloo suggests. “Or maybe we can paint Sweetie Belle's cutie mark on your flank. Matter of fact, that might be the best idea.” She swishes her tail. “I, for one, certainly well remember what it looks like and we Crusaders have plenty of experience with drawing cutie marks.”

Button moans as he squirms in discomfort.

I frown at him because I do feel sorry for him. Despite all the mess I've already brought upon him, I feel like I've been too abusive to him on top of that. Maybe we are pushing him too far and it's not as if I can't understand his discomfort. I felt that way for several days straight.

But I've also accumulated a lot of stress because of those few days. Our current situation is leagues better than how it started. It's still not totally ideal, but it kind of feels as cozy as taking shelter during a heavy rainstorm.

We have this chance to hang out and finally do something fun for a change. I want to take advantage of it.

Button probably notices that all eyes are on him which means all the pressure is on him. He looks around at each of us one by one as we're giving him encouraging and hopeful looks. When he completes his scan, he groans and says, “Fine! But can I at least do something with my mane here?”

I'm sharply taken aback and instantly feel both surprised and offended. A girl's mane is her pride and joy, after all, so I ask very defensively, “What's wrong with my mane?”

“Nothing as long as it is you wearing it,” he returns to me. “But the problem here is I am wearing it now and it feels too . . . well, you know . . . girly for me,” he says with a squeamish expression. “Is there any way to tone that down while we are out? I don't know. Like maybe comb it up maybe and stick it under my propeller hat?”

Now all eyes are on me and I know why. I answer, “Well . . . that's fine, I guess. Just don't cut it, please.”

“I think we can manage something,” Cream Heart figures then looks at her son squarely. “Wait for me in my room. I'll show you something about how fillies and mares brush their manes. I'll also show you how to tie it up so it's not too in the way. After that,” she pauses as she has a discerning look to her son before she goes on to say, “Another thing we have to adjust is your hat itself.”

“Because Sweetie Belle's head is a different size?” Button asks his mom.

In response, Cream shakes her head as she says, “I doubt that's the case. She seems roughly your size. The real problem is her horn, son. By tucking all of her mane on top of your head, it would already push the hat up a bit further. On top of that, you’ll have to wear your hat further back so that her horn sticks out the front.”

“Oh. Yeah. Right,” Button says as he touches the alien appendage on my forehead. “I forgot about that.” He whips his head to me as he says, “And you owe me for this, Sweetie Belle! You promised me you'd teach me how to use your magic. I was serious with that request.”

“What? Really?” Scootaloo asks Button with a blink of surprise. “Why? Those kinds of skills took Sweetie years to learn to master. Why are you so anxious to learn all them of a sudden?”

“Says the one who was encouraging me to learn to use my changeling wings to fly,” I remind Scootaloo.

“Yes,” Scootaloo responds to me. “I haven't forgotten that.” She looks back at Button. “But I want to hear how he responds to that question.”

“Simple,” Button says as he turns in his stool to face Scootaloo fully. “I want to be prepared to defend Sweetie from danger in case it shows up, but at the same time, I don't want to risk using her body to do it because that's still sort of endangering her. Using her magic is the best compromise I can think of.”

Scootaloo squints an eye at Button as she asks him, “Are you being serious right now?” She transfers that questioning look to me as she asks me, “Is he being serious right now?”

“My little boy often has ideas too big for his britches,” Button's mother remarks candidly.

“Yes,” I answer Scootaloo flatly. “He's serious.”

“Wow!” Scootaloo says in amazement as she looks back at Button Mash then salutes him. “I wish you luck, kid.”

Author's Note

Coming off the heels of a starkly serious chapter like "The Room", the story returns to the light-heartedness the show is typically known for except with an extra emphasis on the gender-bend element.